I’m unabashedly a creature of capitalism, and my two favorite places from this trip were Citysuper and Muji, which I’ll talk about another time.

Citysuper (technically spelled “c!ty’super”) is a supermarket chain based out of Hong Kong. It’s a high-end chain with a huge emphasis on American, European and Japanese import goods. There is a ridiculous array of the largest selection of Japanese instant ramen you’ll ever find, expensive fruit ales from Europe of fruits I’ve never even heard, really odd flavors of Cheetos that you never thought existed. I can’t really think of an American equivalent that stocks as much as Citysuper does, even if it’s all insanely expensive.

I’ve been to Citysuper in Hong Kong and I went to the one that just opened in Shanghai, the only store on mainland China for now. I’ve known about Citysuper before through Patrick, a stationery buyer for LOGON, which is basically a stationery hub within the Citysuper chain. (I KNOW. THEY EXIST.)

Boxes of animal-shaped paper clips. Yeah, that’s a whale. And a freaking PENGUIN.

All kinds of energy tonics. Red Bull is like children’s play in Asia.

On top of how much of the world is offered within Citysuper’s aisles, its layout and design is superb. The way extra stock is placed here is just so neat:

I made it a point to make repeated trips to Citysuper in both cities. It’s not really because I wanted to buy a lot of things — I didn’t — but I think it’s immensely interesting to observe a foreign city’s shopping culture. What does it say about Hong Kong that a pretty standard supermarket chain like Citysuper offers such an international palette in its stock? What does it say about New York that we don’t have an equivalent? Things like that.